over those days, trying to figure out what to do. you can stop and imagine for a moment a contract with a major magazine that requires the time that ever happened. would defend the copyright, prevent the film from being exploited or sensationalized, or being widely distributed in even go copies. most of all, he decided to donate some of the money he got to the widow of jamie tencent, who was shot in the theater. >> watch the entire program on the presidency, sunday at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern. this is american history tv, only on c-span3.

week, american artifacts take you to museums and historic places to learn about american history. next, we visit the henry ford in dearborn michigan to see the garage where ford built his, first car, the quadricycle. historic structures creator kym johnson shows us his childhood home, where he was born in 1863. both buildings were relocated to greenfield village, the living history section of the henry ford. johnson, i'm jim the curator of historic structures at the henry ford. multi---re with a 1914 model t. behind me is the shed, this stood behind his house in detroit where he developed his first gasoline engine,

eventually his first car in 1896. we will be having a look at his first place, which was brought here as well. this is what we call the bakley shed, it stood where he lived in 1890. that's when he was a high ranking steam engineer in detroit. interest ina big the internal combustion engine and the concept of an automobile, which was a new thing in the 1890's. his first attempt at an engine was 1893, based on that successful experiment, he put together the car we see behind us here, the quadricycle. it is made up of different parts he collected, a set of firestone rubber buggy tires. worked very well.

when it was time for its initial run in 1886, ford unfortunately didn't account for how big the car was. he had to smash the breaks out of the doorway to get the car out. a successful run with the car, and had to settle up with the landlord to put the building back together. we are seeing an exhibit put together. it was originally a duplex, there were two bank sheds, he only had access to one side of the shed. there, not a very large lot. it would have been directly behind the house that would have fronted on bagley avenue. ofs would have been a work several months, a lot of of the machining and things like that would have been done by hand. there's recognizable things on the car, a doorbell, an

upholstered buggy seat, bicycle tires. quite a bit was made, especially the engine, which he built from scratch or purchased some engineer parts. they stayed there not too long, they moved 14 times in the midst of their marriage. the last him being the fairlane estate in dearborn. they would move around from place to place, his first founding was in 1903, a partnership he eventually would lose control and drift away from it, and the company changed hands and ended up becoming cadillac. the company proceeded on. the second attempt was not a financial success, his third attempt, named the ford motor company, had a lot to do with

success on the racetrack. he built very fast race cars, he proved himself as a worthy automobile engineer and got what he needed to found the ford motor company successfully in 1903, that's the company we know today. we are here in front of henry ford's birthplace, built in dearborn around 1861. he was born here in the upper bedroom in july of 1863. his father was a carpenter, his grandfather was also a housebuilder and carpenter. 's father worked for him and that's how henry ford's father met his mother. henry ford's father and grandfather built this house together. it was relocated here to greenfield village very late in one of thes life,

few buildings moved in large pieces. we arebuilt over time, representing it in its last iteration. sometime in the 1870's. -- a seriesdition of additions but on the back, adding on a kitchen and a wood shed for various reasons. the house it self has grown over time. by theplane house, 1860's, some houses had more detail to it. the fairly typical, furnishings inside are very middle-class. a few homemade pieces, quite a few mass-produced pieces. a lot of people are struck by the fact that may be the family was wealthy, they were not. the furnishing is average at a core for a house in the middle part of the 19th century. this is part of a farm, about a 250 acre farm or so.

the outbuildings were different from the time period you are talking about. across the street, about where it is now, was the family's barn. that was used to hold hay and livestock. they raised a number of different crops, corn, oats, it was a fairly typical midwestern farm at the time period. henry ford, growing up on a farm, there were a lot of mechanical things to deal with. he was not a fan of farm work, always looking for ways to make it easier. his father was also of the mind that was into the latest machines, would go to exhibitions to see the latest machines used for the farm. the windmill is an example of something his father would have installed to pump water for the livestock. very early on, he was known for

his mechanical abilities. he would repair watches, he was running steam engines that would run sawmills. he was hired out to do that kind of work. he left home to seek other work at a pretty young age at 16. , heound work as a machinist started very early in that vein of working with machines. typicalthrough what was of farm families, primary education through eighth grade or so. education was important to him, several school buildings that he attended were included in greenville village. a couple of the other buildings which you can see in this direction was a reproduction of the school that he attended in the 1870's. he and his wife were out in a

country drive and her children playing during a nursery rhyme chance, between them they could not remember what the next verse was. they remembered it would come from one of the mcguffey readers they were raised on. they became possessed about finding the mcguffey readers, that was their first historical collection. it opened their eyes to this concept of preserving the past. a lot of museums have fine art, fine furniture, we have some of that, as well. he collected things people probably should have thrown away, but cap. we have a collection of furniture, housework, stoves, appliances, things that were of everyday life in the 19th and 20th century. the former room in the front, parlor. to the back is now what is a dining room, beyond a sitting room.

the kitchen, and the witch had at the very back. the house is set up for an extended family. eventually be grandparents lived here, of course their bedrooms would have been on the first floor. staircase is in the center of the house, and there are three rooms up. the furnishings are all things they would have set up housekeeping with around 1860. they continue up through the time period we represent, 1870's. warmer. foot you would put coals. the types of houses really aren't central heated, there's a tiny stove that would not have been fired up all day long. they were not very large.

this is the parlor, the former room -- the formal room. henry ford had very specific ideas about what should be in a room, stoves are an exact copy of those that were in the house. similar,ture is very this carpet is going to be reproduced again to be even more accurate to the one that was originally put in here. he remembered counting the roses and the floral pattern while he sat quietly in the parlor. he knew exactly what the patterns needed to look like. in some cases, the upgraded things a little bit. we don't have any evidence there was a useful in that musical instrument in the parlor. -- a musical instrument in the parlor.

there are a numbers of original pieces of furniture that were in the house in 1870. one notable thing is the desk in the front parlor. would dod's father activities at the desk like signing marriage licenses and things like that. behind you on the wall is the only image, i think there's an earlier photo, henry ford's mother. the images on the table are bornesting, henry ford was 2-3 weeks after the battle of gettysburg. served withncles the michigan 21st, one of the very famous civil war units that

served out of michigan. john was killed early in the work, barney survived the war. room, a laterning addition to the house. through the house's history, the stove isoved back, the a nice story. this is the identical model that was in the room, he remembered it so specifically that there was an epic search to try to find one like it. wouldnch by the window have been one of the places he would have worked on repairing things, especially watches. the china is a reproduction, it was done very specifically off he remembered the

family having one he was a kid. we don't cook here a lot, but we do several times a year. through the christmas season, during the fall harvest weekend, and for his birthday. the stove is an actual stove from the time period, but not the one he picked out. the one he picked out is preserved, and we have chosen another one because we actually use it. this room has a lot of doors and windows for ventilation to let the heat out. every room has a set of doors, in a house without central heating, you have to heat each room individually or rely on another room to supply the heat.

we have an interesting collection of buildings, historic structures, workplaces, we were founded in 1929 i henry ford, who more than anything wanted to preserve day to day life as he knew it as a child in the 19th century. the speed of life was changing hefast that as a result, thought things were being lost and he thought it was important to preserve them. >> you can watch this and other american artifacts programs by visiting our website at c-span.org/history. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable-television company. it is brought to you today by your cable or satellite